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Case 2:17-cv-08906-DOC-JPR Document 64 Filed 10/15/18 Page 1 of 137 Page ID #:1205 1 Douglas Q. Hahn, California Bar No. 257559 [email protected] 2 Salil Bali State Bar No. 263001 3 [email protected] STRADLING YOCCA CARLSON & RAUTH, P.C. 4 660 Newport Center Drive, Suite 1600 5 Newport Beach, CA 92660-6422 Telephone: (949) 725-4000 6 Fax: (949) 725-4100 7 Victor G. Hardy (admitted pro hac vice) 8 [email protected] 9 William M. Parrish (admitted pro hac vice) 10 [email protected] R. Floyd Walker (admitted pro hac vice) 11 [email protected] 12 HARDY PARRISH YANG, LLP Spicewood Business Center 13 4412 Spicewood Springs Rd., Suite 202 14 Austin, Texas 78759 Phone: (512)520-9407 15 16 Attorneys for Plaintiff Preservation Technologies LLC 17 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 18 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 19 PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES Civil Action Nos. 20 LLC, Plaintiff, 2:18-cv-03058-DOC-JPR 21 22 v. SECOND AMENDED 23 COMPLAINT FOR PATENT MG CONTENT RK LTD., and MG INFRINGEMENT 24 CONTENT DP LTD., 25 Defendants. Jury Trial Demanded 26 27 28 Case 2:17-cv-08906-DOC-JPR Document 64 Filed 10/15/18 Page 2 of 137 Page ID #:1206 1 Plaintiff Preservation Technologies LLC (“Preservation” or “Plaintiff”), by 2 and through its attorneys, for its Complaint against MG Content RK Ltd. and MG 3 Content DP Ltd. (together, “Defendants”) hereby alleges as follows: 4 I. NATURE OF THE ACTION 5 1. This is a patent infringement action to end Defendants’ direct, joint, 6 contributory, and/or induced infringement of Plaintiff Preservation’s patented 7 inventions, including but not limited to Defendants’ unauthorized and infringing 8 use, sale, offering for sale, manufacture, and/or importation of methods and 9 products incorporating Plaintiff’s inventions. 10 2. Preservation has obtained all substantial rights and interest to U.S. 11 Patent No. 5,813,014, U.S. Patent No. 5,832,499, U.S. Patent No. 6,092,080, U.S. 12 Patent No. 6,353,831, U.S. Patent No. 5,832,495, U.S. Patent No. 6,477,537, U.S. 13 Patent No. 6,199,060, U.S. Patent No. 6,212,527, U.S. Patent No. 6,549,911, U.S. 14 Patent No. 6,581,071, and U.S. Patent No. 6,574,638 (collectively, the “Asserted 15 Patents” or “Patents-in-Suit”). 16 3. Defendants provide, use, put into use, sell, offer for sale, distribute, 17 manufacture, and/or import infringing products and services, and encourage 18 others, including their customers, to use Defendants’ products and services in an 19 infringing manner. 20 4. Plaintiff Preservation seeks to prevent Defendants from continuing 21 infringement of Plaintiff’s patent rights. Plaintiff further seeks past and future 22 damages and prejudgment and post judgment interest for Defendants’ past 23 infringement of the Asserted Patents. 24 25 26 -1- 27 SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT 28 Case 2:17-cv-08906-DOC-JPR Document 64 Filed 10/15/18 Page 3 of 137 Page ID #:1207 1 II. THE PARTIES 2 A. Plaintiff 3 5. Plaintiff Preservation Technologies LLC is a limited liability company 4 organized and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware, with its principle 5 place of business located at 903 E. 18th Street, Suite 223, Plano, TX 75074. 6 B. Defendants 7 6. MindGeek is a business name for the operations conducted by a 8 number of domestic and foreign entities that operate over 100 websites, including 9 Pornhub, YouPorn, Tube8, and XTube (among other sites enumerated in Section 10 VII) and conduct other activities within the United States. MindGeek, among 11 other things, is the largest distributor of free internet porn in the world. Its 12 business model is to provide free internet porn to website visitors in the United 13 States and it makes a large portion of its revenue from advertising from United 14 States companies and subscriptions from website visitors. 15 7. Upon information and belief, MG Content RK Ltd. is a private limited 16 company organized and existing under the laws of the Republic of Ireland, with a 17 place of business located at 24/26 City Quay, Dublin, Ireland. 18 8. Upon information and belief, MG Content DP Ltd. is a private limited 19 company organized and existing under the laws of the Republic of Ireland, with a 20 place of business located at 24/26 City Quay, Dublin, Ireland. 21 9. Upon information and belief, MG Content RK Ltd. and MG Content 22 DP Ltd. are indirectly wholly-owned subsidiaries of MindGeek S.a.r.l. 23 10. Upon information and belief, MindGeek S.a.r.l. is a Société à 24 responsabilité limitée organized and existing under the laws of Luxembourg, with 25 26 -2- 27 SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT 28 Case 2:17-cv-08906-DOC-JPR Document 64 Filed 10/15/18 Page 4 of 137 Page ID #:1208 1 a places of business located at (1) 32 Boulevard Royal, L-2249 Luxembourg City, 2 Luxembourg and (2) 23000 West Empire Avenue, 7th Floor, Burbank California 3 91504. 4 11. Upon information and belief, MindGeek S.a.r.l. was formerly known 5 as “Manwin Licensing International S.a.r.l.” 6 12. Herein, “MindGeek” or “Defendant(s)” refers to MG Content RK 7 Ltd., MG Content DP Ltd. and all of their parents (e.g., MindGeek S.a.r.l.), 8 subsidiaries, affiliates and other entities involved in infringing activity. 9 Collectively, MindGeek S.a.r.l. and its network of subsidiaries will be referred to 10 as the “MindGeek Organization,” which upon information and belief consists of 11 over 100 entities incorporated or otherwise organized throughout the world. 12 13. Upon information and belief, MindGeek S.a.r.l. is the owner of the 13 domain names of the Accused Websites enumerated in Section VII. 14 14. Upon information and belief, MindGeek S.a.r.l. grants other entities of 15 the MindGeek organization the right to use the domain names and/or operate the 16 domains. 17 15. Upon information and belief, the MindGeek Organization operates as 18 a single business enterprise for the purpose of producing, distributing, and 19 monetizing pornography on the Internet. 20 16. The corporate structure of Defendants and the MindGeek 21 Organization and its related entities is not public information. Upon information 1 22 and belief, MindGeek S.a.r.l. has at least 60 direct subsidiaries. 0F Including 23 24 1 Hannon Brenton, “Porn empire reports half billion dollars in revenue – but ends 25 year with loss”, Luxembourg Times (Mar. 23, 2018) available at 26 -3- 27 SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT 28 Case 2:17-cv-08906-DOC-JPR Document 64 Filed 10/15/18 Page 5 of 137 Page ID #:1209 1 indirect subsidiaries, the total number of subsidiaries of MindGeek S.a.r.l. is 2 believed to be at least 150. Upon information and belief, the MindGeek 3 Organization uses the complexity of its corporate structure for the purpose of 4 avoiding liabilities by obscuring the identity of the entity or entities responsible 5 for various MindGeek actions. 6 17. MindGeek S.a.r.l. has the authority to direct that its subsidiaries, 7 including MindGeek USA, make political donations. In 2012, Froytal Services 8 Limited (“Froytal”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MindGeek S.a.r.l. incorporated 9 under Cyprus law, made a political contribution to a Los Angles, California ballot 10 measure committee (the “Committee”). For compliance reasons, this contribution 11 was refunded to Froytal with the expectation that it would be replaced by a 12 contribution from MindGeek USA. Exhibit 1 in Support of Stipulation, Decision 13 and Order at 6, No on Government Waste, No on Measure B, Major Funding By 14 Manwin USA; Diane Duke; Froytal Services Limited; and Mindgeek USA 15 Incorporated F.K.A. Manwin USA, Inc., Cal. Fair Political Practices Commission 16 (FPPC) Case No. 15/1133 (approved Dec. 17, 2015), available at 17 http://www.fppc.ca.gov/content/dam/fppc/documents/Stipulations/2015/ 18 December/No on Government Waste - Stip and Exh.pdf (hereinafter “FPPC 19 Stipulation”). 20 18. The manner in which MindGeek Organization entities are operated 21 creates the appearance of a single entity. For example, the relationship between 22 Froytal and MindGeek USA was so unclear that a business partner of MindGeek 23 24 https://luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/33248-porn-empire-reports-half-billion-dollars-in- 25 revenue-but-ends-year-with-loss. 26 -4- 27 SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT 28 Case 2:17-cv-08906-DOC-JPR Document 64 Filed 10/15/18 Page 6 of 137 Page ID #:1210 1 USA believed that they were the same entity. In particular, an employee of the 2 Free Speech Coalition and director of the Committee, Diane Duke, explained that 3 Froytal often paid membership fees on behalf of MindGeek USA. Id. at 8. 4 Accordingly, she “mistakenly viewed Froytal and Manwin USA as the same 5 company.” Id. 6 19. As MindGeek USA was neither a parent nor subsidiary of Froytal, 7 such financial maneuvering must have been with the blessing and encouragement 8 of their common parent company, MindGeek S.a.r.l. This arrangement was 9 confirmed by a spokesperson for the MindGeek entities who explained that 10 “Thylmann runs the global company and that he ‘absolutely’ personally approved 2 11 funding the opposition to Measure B.” 1F Upon information and belief, the 12 MindGeek entities were still subject to this form of common control when the 13 MindGeek Organization received Preservation’s notice of MindGeek’s patent 14 infringement in 2014.